BSc Management (Accounting & Finance) with Industrial/Professional Experience

The course unit introduces students to the related topics of creativity, design and entrepreneurship. By alternating sessions between creativity, design and entrepreneurship, students will learn how to develop their creative and entrepreneurial mindset. As an application, participants will use their own creativity and knowledge about users and changes in the global marketplace to propose a new and realistic business venture that will solve customer problems and challenge business-as-usual.

 

 

Over the last decade the core of our economy has been transitioning from one of industrial might, large monolithic corporations, and mass production towards one of networks, flexible enterprises comprising many smaller units and unique value. This new economy is based on innovation originating in creativity and design; it is also disrupting long-standing and established employment patterns and bringing to the fore the importance of entrepreneurship. This core unit will bring together creativity, design, and entrepreneurship at the conceptual and more practical level. It aims to explore the nature, determinants and consequences of creativity, design, and entrepreneurship as well as the interaction between them.
The unit is structured around the process of starting a business venture. The first five weeks will be focused on the process of using creativity and design to identify entrepreneurial opportunities that will form the basis of a start-up. Students will learn about theories of creativity and work with several tools to enhance creativity. The unit will then focus on the ways in which creativity feeds into design, discussing user-centred design, design-driven innovation, and design thinking. Taking a holistic approach to design, students will learn how to move from inspiration to ideation and implementation, respectively, to develop a new business venture. Based on a process of divergent thinking the aim of the first part is to ideate and refine several concepts for a business venture.
The second part of the unit will discuss the conditions under which creative ideas become commercially successful business ventures. Students will learn about the process of how to select the best creative ideas. The unit will then focus on the entrepreneurial journey of creating and validating a business model for a start-up, using insights from effectuation, customer development and the lean start-up. Based on a process of convergent thinking, the aim of the second part is to create a concrete business model using one of the previously developed concepts and validate customer interest in the value offering.

Knowledge and understanding
•    Demonstrate critical understanding of theories of creativity, design, and entrepreneurship.
•    Demonstrate knowledge of various approaches to use creativity and design to create a business venture.

Intellectual skills
•    Apply a holistic approach to developing creative and design-led ventures.
•    Apply frameworks to stimulate creativity and design thinking in the process of entrepreneurship.

Practical skills
•    Apply and develop self-directed learning to give shape to creative ideas.
•    Learn how to overcome barriers in the process of developing a business venture.

Transferable skills and personal qualities
•    Develop strategies to work creatively alone as well as with others building on unique and diverse perspectives. 
•    Demonstrate skills in developing, structuring and communicating ideas in writing, as well as discussing and presenting.

Example Syllabus:

The course unit will cover the following topics:
1. Introduction: The need for more creative and design-led venturing in the new economy
2. Uncovering sources of creativity
3. Identifying entrepreneurial opportunities
4. What is design? An introduction to design
5. "Design Thinking" and innovating by design
6. Combining and selecting creative ideas
7. Developing a venture concept
8. Generating a business model
9. Validating customer interest
10. Developing a business venture
11. Recap session

The unit will consist of 11 lectures of 1.5 hours each as well as 8 workshops of 1.5 hours each. The lectures will introduce the students to the main theoretical ideas behind creativity, design, and entrepreneurship. The workshops aim to put the theoretical ideas in practices by doing exercises and games to stimulate creativity, to learn how to apply design thinking and to take first steps in developing a business model for a real start-up. The final week will act as a recap session.

Formative assessment: two individual assignments

-    Outline two business venture concepts developed using creativity tools and frameworks

-    ‘PechaKucha challenge’: elevator pitch of a business model for a new venture during the final workshop

Summative assessment: one individual assignment (100% of the final mark)

Report: Develop a business model for a new venture using theories on creativity, design and entrepreneurship.

 

Written feedback on assignments and verbal feedback in workshops.

•    Kelley, T., & Kelley, D. (2012). Reclaim Your Creative Confidence. Harvard Business Review, 90(12), 115-118.
•    Amabile, T. M. (1998). How to kill creativity: Keep doing what you’re doing. Or, if you want to spark innovation, rethink how you motivate, reward, and assign work to people. Harvard Business Review, 76(1), 77-87.
•    Brown, T. (2008). Design thinking. Harvard Business Review, 84(6), 86-92.
•    Fisher, G. (2012). Effectuation, causation, and bricolage: a behavioral comparison of emerging theories in entrepreneurship research. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 36(5), 1019-1051.

 Note: A list of required readings will be provided for each session topic in the full course specification

Pre-requisites: None

Co-requisites: None

Dependent courses: None

Programme Restrictions:  BSc Management/Management (specialism), IM, ITMB, IBFE.

 

Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2027 will be £10,050 per annum. Tuition fees for international students will be £34,800 per annum.

For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

You will receive a significant tuition fee discount for the placement year. UK students with a household income of up to £35,000 are also eligible to receive a  cash bursary  worth up to £2,000.

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme.

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

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As an international student you may be eligible for our Global Futures Scholarships . This is open to students starting their studies in September 2026.